Pakistan violence: Gunmen storm Quetta hospital

Gunmen have attacked a hospital in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, hours after an explosion on a bus killed 14 female university students.

Officials say four gunmen were killed during a siege of part of the hospital where the wounded are being treated.

Nurses, hospital security personnel and a senior city official were among the 10 others killed in the stand-off.

An extremist Sunni militant group, Laskar-e-Jhangvi, told the BBC it carried out both attacks.

A man calling describing himself as a spokesman for the group said they were a revenge for an earlier raid by security forces against the group in which a woman and children were killed.

Analysis

By Shahzeb Jillani BBC News, Pakistan

Balochistan is strategically significant because it borders Iran and Afghanistan. The province is rich in minerals and natural resources - and yet it has remained the country's most impoverished province.

Ethnic Baloch nationalists have long accused the central government in Islamabad of exploitation. Thousands of Pakistani troops are deployed across the province to fight militancy. They stand widely accused of abductions and killings of Baloch activists.

In recent years, Balochistan has seen more lethal violence by extremist Sunni militants. Groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have carried out major bombings against Shia religious minorities. The group is known for close ties with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent months.

The latest violence began when a bomb exploded on a bus carrying female students at a university.